#Nykiya Adams

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Bird (Andrea Arnold, 2024)

[freshmoviequotes]

Bird (2024)

[politedemon]

It really, really, really could happen.

[shattereddteacup]

Bird (2024)

Dir. Andrea Arnold

Language: English

[verypersonalscreencaps]

TOP 5 FIRST-TIME WATCHES OF NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2024

1. LE COMTE DE MONTE-CRISTO (2024, dir. A. de La Patellière & M. Delaporte) 2. LEE (2023, dir. Ellen Kuras) 3. THE OUTRUN (2024, dir. Nora Fingscheidt) 4. ANORA (2024, dir. Sean Baker) 5. BIRD (2024, dir. Andrea Arnold)

[cinematapestry]

Bird (2024) dir. Andrea Arnold

[mariwatchesmovies]

Bird (2024) dir. Andrea Arnold cine. Robbie Ryan

[peng-lads]

I’d be excited too

[moviemosaics]

Bird

directed by Andrea Arnold, 2024

[niallsdaya]

so excited 🙂‍↕️

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Bird (Andrea Arnold, 2024)

[rickchung]

Bird (dir. Andrea Arnold) x VIFF 2024.

[It] may not be the British filmmaker's best film, but it is certainly the most Andrea Arnold film she has ever made. Known for a trademark sense of social realism to her naturalistic cinematic style exploring otherwise unseen working-class subcultures of the impoverished, Arnold's latest continues to explore a young person's coming-of-age point-of-view to their bleak world.

Screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Special Presentations program.

[hypomanic-chaos]

New music video from Fontaines D.C., featuring clips from Andrea Arnold's new film Bird (2024)

[mauxpourdesmots]

[genevieveetguy]

Bird, Andrea Arnold (2024)

[sloshed-cinema]

Bird (2024)

Filmmaking for Andrea Arnold seems to be all about the act of noticing. As we explore the tower blocks and row houses of a lower-income community somewhere in Kent, the attention doesn’t focus on the usual trappings of poverty porn. The walls of adolescent Bailey’s home and those of her family are covered in graffiti and they trudge about elevated walkways as trains clatter by, but none of this is fetishized. Instead, small moments of ephemeral beauty leap out: butterflies resting against windowpanes, murmurations of birds and clouds overhead, curious seagulls. Arnold finds poetry in these simple landscapes, making triptychs of the chainlink grilles of walkways or superimposing footage onto shabbily wallpapered walls. The same can be said of Bailey, who is always filming things she sees around her. This is all about looking past the obvious and instead seeking out detail. But Bailey’s filming also has a defensive element: when she takes videos of people around her, it’s to gather evidence of wrongdoing, potential or otherwise. Initially wary of Bird, she captures his antics in a field. He proves to be less threatening, but the same cannot be said of her mother’s new boyfriend Skate. His unhinged antics escalate to violence and must be dealt with. A major driving factor for Bailey is one of protection. She feels the need to protect her younger cousins, to stick up for her brother Hunter. She’s prickly and assured, but at a point in her life when acting on that or knowing what to do can be challenging. There is so much uncertainty around, about herself, her family, her identity, that navigating these obstacles can seem insurmountable. Which is where Bird factors in.

Magic realism is a subgenre or technique in film that always sounds appealing to me when flipping through a film festival program, but when I’m actually sitting in the theatre often falls short in practice. It’s an easy way to make your indie (usually coming-of-age) film seem like it’s “about” something or has “meaning” without having to actually do the work of crafting a thesis. It’s a bird person! Birds mean freedom and whatever, but they’re also kinda freaky! You do the math! Franz Rogowski’s performance as Bird is committed in its physicality: from the jump, he’s a bit of an odd duck, eccentric in his mannerisms, staring at things a little too hard, prone to occasional quirks of sudden, jerky movement. He lays out the breadcrumbs for the final artistic flourish, but that makes the sudden escalation no less jarring in its tonal shift. His is both an active and a passive presence as the narrative needs, an internal or an external sense with Bailey. This could mean any number of things to any number of people, and while that’s not a problem of itself, it clashes with the more vérité stylings of the main thrust of the film. Let’s have our cake and eat it too.

I’m no Barry Keoghan hater, but the choice to cast him was an actively distracting any time he showed up and swanned about in his fake tattoos. Rogowski works because of his committed strangeness, but perhaps Bug should have been some anonymous guy.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'bridesmaid'.

Bug says 'feckin'.

Bailey takes phone video.

BIG DRINK

Split or projected/superimposed frame.

Franz Rogowski's character appears on a roof.